Gold and Silver – Page 238 – Republic of Mining

Pebble Mine debate in Alaska: EPA becomes target by planning for rare ‘veto’ – by Joby Warrick (Washington Post – February 15, 2015)

February 27, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Just north of Iliamna Lake in southwestern Alaska is an empty expanse of marsh and shrub that conceals one of the world’s great buried fortunes: A mile-thick layer of virgin ore said to contain at least 6.7 million pounds — or $120 billion worth — of gold.

As fate would have it, a second treasure sits precisely atop the first: the spawning ground for the planet’s biggest runs of sockeye salmon, the lifeline of a fishery that generates $500 million a year.

Between the two is the Obama administration, which has all but decided that only one of the treasures can be brought to market. How the White House came to side with fish over gold is a complex tale that involves millionaire activists, Alaska Natives, lawsuits and one politically explosive question: Can the federal government say no to a property owner before he has a chance to explain what he wants to do?

As early as this spring, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to invoke a rarely used legal authority to bar a Canadian company, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., from beginning work on its proposed Pebble Mine, citing risks to salmon and to Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay, 150 miles downstream.

The EPA’s position is supported by a broad coalition of conservationists, fishermen and tribal groups — and, most opinion polls show, by a majority of Alaskans.

[Mike Tremblay] Self-confessed bush rat strikes gold – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – February 13, 2014)

February 26, 2015

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

Mike Tremblay grew up in Chapleau, nine kilometres from the Borden Lake discovery, and couldn’t wait to get out. “I was getting to the point where I was going to be in trouble with the law if I didn’t figure out what I was going to do with myself, so I went to the guidance councellor and they figured I was the kind of guy who should be working outdoors.”

Forestry was out of the question, so Tremblay enrolled in a geology program at Sault College. In 1984, he was back in Chapleau and found work with Noranda on an outcrop sampling program. “They were redoing the highway at the time and blasted through an outcrop,” he recalled. “One of the guys I worked with mapped it and in his report called it vent proximal geology.

That was really interesting to me. Noranda’s idea was that it was good geology for a base metal deposit, but there was a little sniff of gold and I decided to follow it up.” A self-confessed “bush rat,” Tremblay received a series of grants through the Ontario Prospectors Assistance Program over the years.

“The OPAP grants of $10,000 allowed me to pay myself $100 a day, spend time near my home town and still do what I wanted to do on my own terms,” he said.

He first staked property in the Borden Lake area in 1987 and continued to work it for a total of 17 years between other jobs. He held the property from 1987 to 2000 and restaked it in 2006.

Banks Face U.S. Manipulation Probe Over Metals Pricing – by David McLaughlin and Tom Schoenberg (Bloomberg News – February 24, 2015)

February 25, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the world’s biggest banks manipulated prices of precious metals such as silver and gold as it pushes to wrap up probes into currency-rate rigging, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

At least 10 banks, including Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, are being probed by the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.

Precious metals have come under scrutiny as authorities around the world investigate allegations that other financial benchmarks have been rigged. While the Justice Department’s probe is in its early stages, the Swiss finance regulator included the issue in a November settlement with UBS Group AG over currency-rate manipulation. Switzerland’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday that it opened a preliminary probe into the possibility of price fixing in the precious-metals market.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is continuing to scrutinize firms’ behavior in relation to precious metals as part of continuing supervisory work spurred by the foreign-exchange probe. While the FCA doesn’t have authority over physical markets, it does regulate derivatives. In that context, it’s already issued one fine, ordering Barclays to pay 290 million pounds ($447.5 million) in May for a former trader who artificially suppressed the price of gold in 2012 using fake positions to avoid triggering a payout to a client.

Newmont to Consider Gold Deals Even as It Reduces Debt – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – February 23, 2015)

February 24, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — Newmont Mining Corp., the largest U.S. gold producer, said it will consider acquisitions as well as the expansion of existing operations.

Like some of its biggest competitors, Newmont is focusing on its most efficient mines following a decline in the gold price. The company has sold about $1.4 billion of assets in the past two years and is building a mine in Suriname. Still, it won’t rule out buying low-cost and long-life mines in safe jurisdictions, Chief Executive Officer Gary Goldberg said.

“We’re always looking to improve our portfolio,” he said Monday in an interview in Hollywood, Florida, where he was attending the BMO Global Metals & Mining conference. “We’ve got a great organic pipeline but also it doesn’t hurt to just look around.”

While Goldberg declined to comment on specific assets Newmont would consider buying, he said the 50 percent of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit mine that Newmont doesn’t own would “fit in” with some of his acquisition criteria.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold miner, is the other Super Pit owner. That stake would be Barrick’s last remaining Australian asset if it offloads the Cowal mine, the sale of which was announced last week.

Nearly 500 miners rescued from South African gold mine (Deutsche Welle – February 23, 2015)

February 23, 2015

http://www.dw.de/

All 486 miners trapped after a fire broke out in a South African gold mine over the weekend have been rescued. Some of the miners were trapped at a depth of nearly 3.5 kilometers.

The miners, who had been trapped by the fire, were rescued Sunday, according to officials from the Harmony Gold Mining Company.

“We are extremely grateful that all of our colleagues have been brought to surface, without injury,” said Harmony Gold spokeswoman Charmane Russell. “Fortunately in this instance, things went according to plan.”
The men were at work in the mine near Carletonville, southwest of Johannesburg, when a fire broke out at around 7:40 a.m. local time (0540 UTC). The miners were told to move to refuge bays within the mine.

“Our employees have been trained for this,” Russell said. Rescue teams were called in to contain the fire and then moved from level to level to locate the trapped miners.

South African President Jacob Zuma told his fellow citizens to keep the trapped miners in their thoughts during the rescue operation. “I urge all South Africans to keep the miners in their thoughts and prayers during this difficult period,” Zuma said.

Barrick rides the DeLorean – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – February 23, 2015)

February 23, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Barrick’s quest for greater relevancy.

Under the heading “Taking Barrick ‘Back to the Future’” Barrick Gold touted a plan to transform itself into a leaner, meaner cash machine with management and operational changes along with debt reductions in its forth quarter overview. Most who were around in the 1980s will get the movie reference at play. Back to the Future was a trilogy of movies that features Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, who rides a time machine built into a DeLorean DMC-12 car, famously featuring gull-wing doors, to make his and his family’s present better than the past.

The nut of the first and subsequent movies is that things have not turned out as they should have, or as McFly would have them turn out. The first movie is about McFly and Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, going back to the 1950s by accident, and then their subsequent attempts to get back to the future (i.e. the 1980s) harnessing the power of lightning to run the DeLorean which, depleted of fuel, needs lots of energy to time travel. In the process, McFly rights – or rewrites – history for his family.

He helps his Dad, in a moment of confrontation, upstage Biff and save Lorraine from the then teenage bully’s advances. Soon thereafter McFly returns to the future – or the present 1980s. And what he finds is nicer than what he previously knew. His dad is no longer a loser and his mum is happy. Biff is a deadbeat.

PRECIOUS-Gold turns down as Greek accord is drafted, 4th weekly drop – by Marcy Nicholson and Clara Denina (Reuters U.K. – February 20, 2015)

February 20, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

NEW YORK/LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Gold turned lower in choppy dealings on Friday, flirting with a seven-week low after the euro zone discussed extending the Greek bailout by just four months, while prices headed for their fourth straight weekly drop.

A draft text on extending Greece’s bailout from its international creditors proposes prolonging the program by four months rather than a previously suggested six, officials from Greece and other euro zone states said on Friday.

Spot gold turned down 0.7 percent at $1,198.55 an ounce by 2:49 p.m. EST (1949 GMT). The metal has lost 2.5 percent so far this week, dipping to its lowest in six weeks at $1,197.56 on Wednesday, when hopes for a successful resolution to Greece’s debt talks boosted investor appetite for risk.

U.S. gold futures for April delivery settled down $2.70 an ounce at $1,204.90 on the day. “Overall, gold is lower as the market grows increasingly optimistic about a positive resolution, hence less need for a safe haven investment,” said Tai Wong, director of base and precious metals trading for BMO Capital Markets in New York.

The euro traded near session highs against the U.S. dollar after the Greek bailout was drafted.

Barrick goes back to mining roots with focus on gold – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – February 20, 2015)

February 20, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barrick Gold Corp. founder Peter Munk had a vision for his company. Barrick’s new chairman John Thornton has another one.

Less than a year on the job as chairman, Mr. Thornton appears to have killed Mr. Munk’s dream of turning Barrick into a giant diversified mining company, and plans to forge a deep business relationship with China are no longer on the table.

Instead, Mr. Thornton wants the world’s biggest gold producer to return to its roots when it was a nimble operator with an entrepreneurial spirit, a streamlined corporate structure and a pristine balance sheet that earned a top credit rating.

Barrick, like the rest of the gold industry, was forced to clamp down on expenses when bullion began plummeting in 2011. Under Mr. Munk and previous management, Barrick had started becoming leaner by selling and suspending expensive operations and shrinking production.

But Mr. Thornton suggested Barrick had lost its way over the past decade and is pushing the company back to its “original DNA.” Gone are the layers of managers between Barrick’s executives and the 19 mines that it operates. Barrick’s Toronto headquarters is now a skeleton crew of 150, compared with 500 in its heyday.

Bad times for Canada’s big gold miners – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – February 20, 2015)

February 20, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Barrick, Goldcorp take massive Q4 writedowns amid weak gold prices.

Barrick Gold Corp. chairman John Thornton’s message to Bay Street came through loud and clear: he wants to take the world’s largest gold producer back to its roots as a smaller company with fewer mines and micro-managers — and hopefully return it to profitability.

To that end, the Toronto mining giant is slashing staff at headquarters by nearly half and selling two Asia-Pacific mines. It will be “laser focused” on reducing its debt by $3 billion this year amid rocky times in the mining industry and a weak gold price, he told analysts on a conference call Thursday.

It wasn’t a banner day for either of Canada’s two largest bullion miners, as Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. reported a loss of $2.4 billion (U.S.) in its latest quarter as it wrote down the value of its Cerro Negro mine in Argentina. Barrick also reported a massive $2.85 billion fourth-quarter loss due to an after-tax impairment charge on its soon-to-be closed Lumwana copper mine in Zambia and the Cerro Casale project in Chile.

Gold miners are struggling as the gold price has lost 35 per cent of its value since its peak of $1,900 (U.S.) an ounce in 2011 and as the industry suffers through a brutal downturn following a 13-year market rally.

Goldcorp takes US$2.3-billion writedown on ‘cornerstone’ Argentine project – by Alexandra Posadzk (Canadian Business – February 19, 2015)

February 19, 2015

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

Goldcorp Inc. reported a US$2.4-billion net loss in its latest quarter as it took a big writedown charge on its Cerro Negro project, but the company’s chief executive says he still has high hopes for the Argentine mine.

“This is an accounting charge and does not reflect losses of gold ounces in the ground or our expectations for this asset,” Charles Jeannes told investors during a conference call Thursday.

“Quite the contrary, we continue to believe Cerro Negro will be a cornerstone operation for Goldcorp for a long time to come.”

The news came after the gold miner announced a loss of $2.94 per diluted share in the fourth quarter compared with a loss of US$1.1 billion or $1.34 per diluted share in the last three months of 2013.

The loss includes the US$2.3-billion hit that Goldcorp took in relation to a drop in the value of the Cerro Negro project, which began commercial production last month.

On an adjusted basis, Goldcorp says it earned US$55 million or seven cents per share, down from nine cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2013. Analysts had estimated an adjusted profit of 12 cents per share for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

A Gold Digger’s Guide to the Universe – by Dr. Sten Odenwald (Huffington Post – February 19, 2015)

February 19, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/science/

Dr. Sten Odenwald is an Astronomer at the National Institute of Aerospace.

The first documented use of gold by humans was found in the jewelery recovered from the Varna Necropolis in Bulgaria and dated to about 6,500 years ago. Since then, enough gold has been mined from Earth’s crust to form a cube 60 feet on a side.

Gold is one of the 100-odd basic elements in the universe. Number 79 in the element list, a cubic meter of it weighs 19 metric tons. Your ‘weight in gold’ would be worth over $2 million! How much gold is there?

The most common ingredient to Earth’s crust is silicon. It makes up beach sand, granite, sandstone and the actually the entire lithosphere. By comparison, you have to sift through about 250 metric tons of this stuff to come up with a measly 1 gram (5 carats) of gold. This kind of a gold mine would be rated at 0.004 g/ton. Generally, industrial mining is only economically feasible if the rating is about 1gram/ton or higher! The best mines produce gold at ratios of 5 gm/ton or more when a rich ore vein is available.

How about sea water? For every 250 million liters of water you will get about 1 gram of gold. This works out to about 1 gram for every 255,000 tons of water or a ratio of 0.000004 g/ton. This of course will be mixed with all kinds of other sediments in solution too, like 34,000 g/ton of sodium, chloride and other ions. So mining for gold in the ocean is not just a matter of evaporating away the water!

Barrick Gold Chairman’s Shakeup Keeps Investors Guessing – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – February 17, 2015)

February 18, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — On an icy late-January evening in Toronto, more than 30 Barrick Gold Corp. mine managers and country heads gathered in the basement of a pub to hear their executive chairman’s vision for the world’s largest gold producer.

In town for year-end meetings, the group listened intently as John Thornton outlined a plan to give them the authority they needed to run their units like their own businesses, according to a person present. Barrick’s Toronto headquarters would shrink in size and reach.

To outsiders these are eye-opening words, coming from a leader known within Barrick for a detail-oriented style which has placed him at the center of decision-making at different levels of the company.

While his comments suggest he’s trying to return Barrick to its nimble roots, questions remain within the investment community about what that may mean over the long run. Will Thornton, an ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, keep Barrick focused on gold, or diversify further into other metals such as copper, as he has hinted in the past?

“I have no idea what’s going on,” said David Christensen, chief executive officer of ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd, a San Mateo, California-based investor that holds Barrick shares. “I feel like I’m looking into a black hole.”

A company where copper is as good as gold – by David Milstead (Globe and Mail – February 14, 2015)

February 17, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

New Gold Inc. is, as its name suggests, a gold miner. But it’s another metal, copper, that plays a large role at the company – perhaps larger than a casual investor might suspect.

How so? New Gold’s New Afton mine, west of Kamloops, B.C., produces twice as much copper than gold, in dollar terms. That allows New Gold, quite legitimately, to report extraordinarily low company-wide mining costs, much lower than at its properties where gold dominates.

The role of copper at New Gold offers a window into how “byproduct accounting,” as it’s called, can impact miners’ financial statements. And it raises an important point for New Gold’s shareholders: To evaluate the company’s prospects going forward, it’s essential to keep an eye not only on the bullion that gives the company its name, but on the lesser metal that provides New Gold much of its cost advantage.

To be clear: The copper factor is not hidden. Investors can plainly see the effects by carefully reviewing the miner’s reports. New Gold released its preliminary 2014 numbers earlier this month, with full results to come Feb. 20. New Gold reported all-in sustaining costs (AISC), a number designed to capture the true long-term cost of mining, of $845 (U.S.) per gold ounce in the fourth quarter.

COLUMN-Gold has bullish hopes, sobering current reality – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – February 16, 2015)

February 17, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The price of gold appears caught in a holding pattern, stuck between what is actually happening to demand and what potentially may happen.

The World Gold Council’s latest quarterly report provides a snapshot of the different dynamics at work in the gold market, and goes some way to explain why the precious metal has been marooned in a fairly narrow range for almost two years. The broad picture from the council’s Gold Demand Trends 2014 report is that last year was the weakest since 2009.

This fits in with spot gold’s modest 1.8 percent decline over the year, but the breakdown of that demand shows where the pressure points are located.

India regained its status as the world’s top gold market, with demand totalling 842.7 tonnes, but this was still 14 percent below 2013 levels.

China slipped back to number two with 813.6 tonnes, a substantial 38 percent decline as consumers pulled back from buying gold after a record year in 2013. What happens in the two Asian powerhouses is important, as together they represent half of the global gold consumer demand.

Agnico Eagle reports good financial performance in 2014 (Nunatsiaq News – February 13, 2015)

February 13, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Firm optimistic about new Amaruq deposit near Meadowbank

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., operator of Nunavut’s Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake and the Meliadine gold project near Rankin Inlet, posted earnings of $83 million for the year 2014, the company said in financial statements released near the end of the day Feb. 11.

That’s a big improvement over the $686.7 million net loss they reported in 2013. And the company’s president and CEO, Sean Boyd, said reduced fuel costs and favorable currency exchange rates, including a lower Canadian dollar, will help them in 2015.

“With projected year-over-year production growth of 12 per cent, lower fuel costs and weaker local currencies anticipated in Canada, Mexico and Finland, we expect to have another strong year in 2015,” Boyd said in the news release.

Minus certain non-recurring items, the company earned $16.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. That compares favorably with a net loss of $780.3 million reported over the same period of 2013.

Boyd, in an interview with the Business News Network broadcast Feb. 12, said the company holds high hopes for the Amaruq deposit, located north of Meadowbank. After about 18 months of exploration, AEM estimates the site holds 1.5 million ounces of gold.